TSE derivatives trading knocked out after tech glitch

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has suffered its second outage this year after a technical problem halted derivatives trading on Tuesday for more than 90 minutes.

The system failure occurred at 09:18, and a halt
on trading all derivatives contracts was issued at 09:22, with orders
processed within that window remaining valid. Trading resumed at 10:55, and
the TSE blamed system problems for the break in trading, giving no additional
detail.

This is the second technical error within six
months for the TSE that has caused a halt in trading. In February the exchange stopped
trading for four hours due to a technical glitch, which affected
241 stocks, including some of Japan’s largest companies. The outage, which the TSE admitted was "rooted in overconfidence", led to CEO Atsushi Saito and other TSE executives taking pay cuts for one month.

The glitch also comes ahead of the expected
merger with the derivatives-focused Osaka Stock Exchange, which is scheduled
for completion in January 2013.

The proposed combination would create the
world’s third-largest equities exchange after NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX, and
was given the all-clear in July by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. The OSE has not experienced a major technical
glitch since 2002.